Men’s Soccer Clinches Tournament Spot with Win
ROCHESTER, NY – Freshman Spencer Neilscored a pair of goals and junior Jake Pawlika tied a school record with three assists in a game to lead the Nazareth University Men’s Soccer team to a convincing 4-0 win over Houghton University in an Empire 8 game Wednesday at Golden Flyers Stadium.
The win propelled Nazareth (10-2-1 overall, 5-1 Empire 8) into first place in the conference standings with 15 points and secured one of the six playoff spots. Houghton fell to 3-9-3 overall and 1-4-2 in Empire 8 games.
The win also sets up a battle of the top two teams in the conference Saturday and Nazareth hosts Elmira (5-6-3 overall, 4-0-2 Empire 8) as the Soaring Eagles have 14 points in the standings.
After nearly 30 minutes of scoreless action, Nazareth scored twice in a span of seven minutes to take a first half lead.
Junior Drew Decker converted the first goal for the Golden Flyers after a scramble in front of the goal and Decker headed a ball into the side of the goal after a shot by Pawlika to give Nazareth a lead.
Just seven minutes later, Pawlika set up Neil for his first career goal. The assist moved Pawlika up to No. 3 in the all-time Nazareth points list as he passed Jon Zatyko ’84 with his 73rd career point. Zatyko recorded 72 career points from 1980-83 with 27 goals and 18 assists.
Early in the second half, Decker added to his school-record career assists total as he set up freshman Tyler Warmington for a goal and a 3-0 Nazareth lead. The assist for Decker was his 25th career assist.
In the 59th minute, Neil netted his second goal of the game and Pawlika tied a school record with his third assist of the game to give the Golden Flyers a commanding lead. The three-assist game was the sixth in school history and the second for Pawlika in his career.
Nazareth held a 19-8 shots advantage, including an 11-4 edge in the first half.Nazareth will host Elmira at 1 p.m. Saturday for senior day before finishing the regular season Wednesday night at St. John Fisher.